Page 56 - MetalForming October 2013

A 200-ft.-long Night Train material- management system serves as the centerpiece of the automated sheetmetal processing line at PTMW. The line also features (right to left) a laser-punch combination machine, a Shear Genius integrated punch/shear machine and a servo- electric automated bender.
“I Think I Can”
...to automated sheetmetal fabrication, riding the back of a flexible manufacturing system that integrates laser- beam cutting, punching, shearing and bending. The line is credited with allowing the manufacturer to set a path for determining its own destiny.
punching/shearing, unloading and inline automated bending. Overnight PTMW transitioned from being an assembler of component parts to hav- ing a worldclass sheetmetal FMS.
“The equipment helped us gain our independence and has set the path for determining our own destiny,” says Goff. “The technology in that Night Train changed our world of manufacturing.”
New Facility Welcomes New Automated Line
As the company continued to grow, Goff added more buildings and fabri- cation equipment. In August 2010, she moved the entire operation into a near- by 827,000 sq. ft. building that, in 2012, became home to a new Prima Power FMS. It includes a Shear Genius SGe8; a model LPe8 laser/punch combination machine; an EBe6Express Bender; and a Night Train model NT8.
The centerpiece of the PTMW auto- mated sheet-processing line is the Night Train material-management sys- tem—an inventory and material trans- porting center. The 200-ft.-long Night Train supplies raw material as well as removes and stores work in process.
For many years, PTMW Inc., Tope- ka, KS, focused on assembling signal and communication hous- es to the railroad industry, purchasing sheetmetal parts from job shops. But around the turn of the century, com- pany president and owner Patti Jon Goff set out to vertically integrate her company, with a commitment to build the company’s foundation on “supply- ing quality parts, timely deliveries, innovative processes and strong cus- tomer relationships,” she says.
Goff ’s parents founded PTMW in the mid 1980s as an assembly plant to produce other company’s products for the railroad industry. In 1987, one of her major customers encouraged her to begin building signal houses—those little metal buildings located near crossings.
FMS Triggers Overnight Makeover
Fast forward to 2000, when Goff opened the next chapter in PTMW’s history.
“I knew that we had an opportunity to take a giant step into the world of manufacturing,” Goff explains. “I did- n’t want to do it half way. I wanted to have the best automated equipment available.”
After comparing machines and sys- tems, PTMW selected the Finn-Power (now Prima Power) Night Train flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Installed in March 2000 in a 15,000-sq.-ft. build- ing (the firm operated out of several buildings at the time, totaling 100,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space), the FMS features automated raw sheet storage, sheet loading, integrated
54 MetalForming/October 2013
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